Congress
Congressman Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency from 1920–31, accused the Federal Reserve of deliberately causing the Great Depression. In several speeches made shortly after he lost the chairmanship of the committee, McFadden claimed that the Federal Reserve was run by Wall Street banks and their affiliated European banking houses.
Many Congressmen who have been involved in the House and Senate Banking and Currency Committees have been open critics of the Federal Reserve, including Chairmen Wright Patman, Henry Reuss, and Henry B. Gonzalez. Congressman Ron Paul, Chairman of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee in 2011, is a staunch opponent of the Federal Reserve System, and routinely introduces bills to abolish the Federal Reserve System, although these have been unsuccessful, garnering neither cosponsors nor hearings.
Ron Paul also introduced H.R. 459: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011, which passed the House on July 25, 2012. This act required an audit of the Federal Reserve Board and the twelve regional banks, with particular attention to the valuation of its securities.
Read more about this topic: Criticism Of The Federal Reserve
Famous quotes containing the word congress:
“What Congress and the popular sentiment approve is rarely defeated by reason of constitutional objections. I trust the measure will turn out well. It is a great relief to me. Defeat in this way, after a full and public hearing before this [Electoral] Commission, is not mortifying in any degree, and success will be in all respects more satisfactory.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
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—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)